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Olympic venue to be turned into courtroom

Greece's Parliament has adopted legislation conceding use of the Olympic Beach Volleyball venue, located in the southern Athens suburb of Faliro, to the Ministry of Justice for the next 20 years, ministry officials said on Sunday.

The transfer enables Greek authorities to kill two birds with one stone. A shortage of courtroom space has been largely to blame for delays in several high-profile cases, including most controversially the criminal trial of the neofascist Golden Dawn party, which has been held in a special courtroom in Korydallos Prison.

Most of the key suspects – including Giorgos Roupakias, who stabbed rapper Pavlos Fyssas to death in 2013 – have been released after serving the maximum of 18 months in pretrial custody.

“A structural problem of the Greek justice system, i.e. the shortage of space where key trials can be carried out, is close to being solved,” the ministry said in a statement.

At the same time, the move will enable the government to put one of the abandoned venues constructed for the 2004 Olympics to use.

The migrant crisis has already given life to some of the other stadiums which are being used as reception centers for thousands of asylum seekers.